A new genre label

I am going to coin the name for an hitherto unlabelled literary genre: Faux Noir Narcissism*.

Faux Noir Narcissism is fiction that is repugnant for no other reason than the writer attempting to be "edgy". Faux-Noir Narcissism will feature much violence, often of the sexual variety, and a lot of swearing. The author of this material will believe that they are "telling it how it is". The reality is that their work is nothing more than a manifestation of their morbid self-absorption.

Such writers will tell you at length about how their work is confronting and exploring the darker side of humanity. If you dare to suggest that the work is gratuitously vile then they will respond that you are naïve and cannot stomach the harsh realities of the world about which they are fearlessly writing. The actual reality is that such writers have never actually experienced anything truly horrific themselves and have no empathy whatsoever with those who have. The reason for this is that they are obsessed with how oh-so very fucked up they believe themselves to be and with the "dark shit" that rattles around their otherwise empty heads. In the case of authors of sexually violent tales, however much the narrative voice may condemn such violence, you will often detect a fetishistic tone, a queasy relish for detail.

This kind of work is not confronting the ugly realities of life - it is utterly inauthentic and displays no insight into how violence, sexual or otherwise, truly affects its victims. It trivialises the real horrors that people endure in this world. Such stories reveal nothing more than the sado-masochistic or rape fantasies of the writer.

There is nothing wrong with depicting violence and the darker aspects of the world in fiction. We all make stuff up but to do it effectively and—dare I say it?—responsibly one must draw upon one's own experiences and extrapolate from them, recall situations you have been in and exaggerate them, adapt them, imagine taking them to the extreme. But most of all you need empathy; and it is all too easy to detect the writers who have none. Without empathy you will produce nothing but shallow, self-indulgent rubbish.

* Unless, that is, "utter shite" counts as a recognised literary genre.